BioAlpha Incorporated presents a video workshop of money-saving, age-appropriate activities
from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready, the how-to book that grows with a child from birth to
age five.
This preschool resource contains 260 weekly activities that are designed to develop skills
which prepare a child for formal learning.
Hello, I'm June Oberlander, a former kindergarten teacher and the author of Slow and Steady
Get Me Ready, a how-to book designed to bridge the gap between home and school.
I am a mother of two and a grandmother of six.
My daughter had her first baby and asked for guidance.
She had read that very early stimulation in young children would give them an enriched
approach to learning and would produce better students in school if done at the proper time.
Her concerns were, what do I do?
When do I interact?
Why?
And most of all, how?
She wanted ideas on how to develop worthwhile experiences to stimulate and challenge her
child through meaningful play.
Since babies don't come with an instruction manual, Slow and Steady Get Me Ready was published
to fill that need and to share with others the weekly, age-appropriate, how-to activities
that were initially developed for my daughter and daughter-in-law.
They have gained immeasurable joy and confidence using Slow and Steady Get Me Ready with their
young children.
The first five years of a child's life are the most formative years in which parents,
teachers, and child care providers need to be aware of what they should and could be
doing to get children ready for formal learning in school in order to develop the total child.
Children learn through play whether they are alone with other children or adults.
As you will see, homemade play is the best way.
Birth to One Year Learning begins at birth.
However, if your baby appears to be unresponsive to a suggested activity, do not be discouraged
but try again later.
Be consistent and be aware that babies are not time clocks.
They develop at different rates and may not necessarily develop in the same areas at the
same age.
Each child is unique.
Therefore, the recommended weekly activities are designed for the approximate age of the
child and should be introduced when the child is receptive.
Developing Grasp and Eye-Hand Coordination Babies are visually stimulated by moving objects.
As a baby matures, he may reach and attempt to grasp an object whether lying on his back
or stomach.
Rolling a set of spools attached with elastic on the baby's stomach enhances his sensory
perception and is a positive way to interact verbally with him as the spools are rolled
back and forth.
Cradle Gym A homemade cradle gym is effective and can
save money.
The spool and lid will visually stimulate the baby when moved back and forth.
When the jingle bells are moved, the baby's head will turn because he will be attracted
to both the movement and the sound.
This activity stimulates the baby's visual and auditory senses.
Pull and Let Go Motivating the baby to pull and let go develops
eye-hand coordination and fine motor control.
Mirror and Pendulum Seeing a face in a mirror and a moving pendulum
stimulate the baby's visual sense and is a good way to interact with an infant.
Feli Squares Sensory perception is very important in the process of learning.
At an early age, an infant's keen sensory perception allows him to feel secure through
the recognition of his mother's smell, voice, face, movement, and touch.
Feli Squares enable a baby to discover the feel of different textures, which enhance
his sensory perception.
Toddlers will enjoy matching identical squares.
When a child is older, these same Feli Squares may be cut into fourths and used in making
patterns.
Poking The baby is encouraged to satisfy his urge
to poke.
On one side, the baby will feel soft, fiber-filled in each hole.
On the other side, he will feel rough sandpaper in each hole.
This activity also enhances the sense of touch.
Where Does It Belong?
Babies love to imitate.
They will develop association skills by observing the placement of the slipper, cap, and mitt.
Stacking and Falling Babies' problems solve by stacking and knocking
down objects.
While stacking large detergent lids, older children discover that cardboard or meat tray
squares will stabilize the stacking.
The Magic Mirror This is a wonderful way to interact with
a baby.
Babies are fascinated by faces, especially when they see a face in a mirror.
When children are older, the magic mirror can be used to play a spy, to teach colors,
shapes, letters, and words.
Face Observation and Paper Plate Peek-a-Boo Babies readily make eye contact with faces
and will often track the face as it is moved.
Peek-a-Boo is an old game, but it continues to be a stimulating way to interact with a
baby when the face is hidden and when one says, peek-a-boo.
Life is a very busy time for a one-year-old child.
It is important to capture the right moment to begin a suggested activity to stimulate
the child.
Notice when the child seems to be looking for something to do.
The time could be early in the morning or after a nap.
At first you may have to do the activity alone while the child watches.
This builds confidence.
Be patient.
At this age, a child's attention span is very short.
Put it through the slit or hole.
Putting objects in a container is a high-interest activity in which the baby must problem solve
using small muscle control to push the plastic disc through a slit that is slightly smaller
in diameter than the disc.
The shoebox house.
Opening and closing the door or placing an object inside or outside teaches awareness
of the concepts inside and outside and also open and close.
Drop small objects in a bottle.
Dropping objects in a narrow neck bottle is also a problem solving experience.
And once the objects are inside, shaking will make a noise.
And then the child will discover how to get the objects out of the bottle.
Let's go fishing.
A fishing game is of high interest to most children.
The baby can develop skill in pulling a simple clothespin fish up through the hole.
As skill develops, a spring clothespin can be used which will challenge the baby to problem
solve in order to lift the fish through the hole.
I can carry a tray.
With this activity, the child will discover a sense of balance and the awareness of light
and heavy objects.
This side, that side.
This side, that side develops an awareness of left to right by using our collection of
small objects which are often discarded.
This activity precedes the put it on the line activity which develops skill in left to right
progression and an awareness of the concept next to or beside.
Both activities allow the child to make a choice each time an object is placed.
Cardboard puzzles.
A child will learn that two parts make a whole by working simple puzzles.
Stepping stones.
A large carpet square and a small carpet square used for stepping stones is a good way for
a child to pretend to cross a river.
The child must follow directions, remember to move the squares in order to proceed to
a given point.
Using large and small muscle coordination is necessary to maintain balance.
Stuff it in the box.
Fathers should be encouraged to interact with their children so that they may actively be
involved in teaching basic home skills.
This father is actively assisting his child to stuff the different textured knotted cloth
strips through the hole.
This activity enriches sensory perception and fine motor control.
Closed pin snap.
This activity was included because I observed many kindergarten children who had poor fine
motor control and therefore they could not attach paper to an easel before painting.
Straw and spool stacking.
Straw and spool stacking requires more skill.
Note that the child problem solves to find the center of the spool and how to balance
the different sizes of spools for stacking.
An older child may be motivated to build a stack as high as she is tall using straws
for support.
Then she can count how many spools tall she is.
The child that aged two needs much to do and may show signs of being responsive and ready
for skill activities at an earlier time than those suggested.
Introducing activities that are a little more advanced is fine, but going too far ahead
may not be the best thing for the child.
Consequently, the child may miss basic skills which would be a foundation for future developmental
activities.
Enhancing an activity with your own ideas and repeating previous activities are far
better.
This method builds skill and confidence slowly and steadily.
Feely bag fun.
Five different objects have been placed in each feely bag.
The contents of each bag are identical.
One bag is for the adult, the other is for the child.
As you see, the adult chose a plastic spoon from her feely bag and she asked the child
to look at it and feel and find the spoon in the other bag.
The other children are waiting for their turn to feel for an object selected by the adult.
Come and find is another more difficult activity in the book suggested at age four.
Up and down.
A pattern is a way of doing something and repeating it.
Here the girl's mother has instructed her to put the cups in a special pattern.
Notice that the mother has told the girl to put the cups away, which teaches the child
to be orderly.
My name.
This is a way to informally teach a child his name, age, and sex.
Teach the child to say this rhyme as a chant, my name is, and insert the child's name.
Then say, I am two.
I am a, and insert, girl or boy, and then say, I love you.
Rub-a-dub-dub.
Acting out nursery rhymes is fun, especially rub-a-dub-dub.
This listening and language activity introduces a rhyme that is amusing to a child.
With guidance, the child can be motivated to spontaneously say words that rhyme with
rub, such as hub, stub, and club.
This is also a gross motor activity in which the child curls up in a box and pretends to
float and rocks back and forth like a boat on the water.
The child may also be gently dumped out of the tub on a given signal.
The surprise delights the child.
On and off.
Children are fascinated with rubber bands.
This activity is a constructive way for children to explore with rubber bands under adult supervision.
Jack B. Nimble.
Jumping when the word jump is said in the rhyme, Jack B. Nimble, encourages listening
for a cue to jump.
This helps to develop listening and gross motor skills.
To enhance this activity, rhyming words with Jack, such as tack, rack, sack, mac, etc.,
can turn this simple rhyme into a good, fun learning experience.
At the age of three, the child is more self-centered and shows more independence.
The child's attention span will be increased if the activities are administered consistently
in an informal, fun, and entertaining manner.
Too much structure or regimentation may cause anxiety with both parent and child.
The activity should be carried out with gentle guidance.
Even voice inflection and self-control play a key role in developing trust and respect.
Some activities may be used for behavior modification.
Jumping fun.
Jumping is developmental.
In the book, jumping activities are suggested for children age two, again at age three,
and at age four.
Some children are reluctant to jump from a higher to a lower level, such as the boy on
the box, while others similar in age are confident and jump with skill.
Finish it.
When I was teaching, some children entered kindergarten unable to express themselves.
This activity is a language enrichment skill to encourage a child to think, reason, and
speak in complete sentences.
Colorful fish.
The magnetic fish game requires more skill than the fish activity mentioned in age one.
This is a high-interest way to teach colors and matching.
Similarly, matching games with shapes, numbers, letters, pictures, or words can be used for
enrichment when the child is ready for each new concept.
Tearing strips.
Tearing strips of paper is fun for young children, but tearing for a purpose involves following
directions and problem-solving.
Awareness of the numbers one through five is introduced.
However, a child of this age probably only understands numbers up to his or her age.
Therefore, adult interaction helps the child by assisting and encouraging her to complete
the task of tearing strips and placing torn pieces to match the numbers on each of the
five plates.
Folded and discover.
Prior to this activity, the shapes of the circle, square, and triangle have been introduced
at different weeks in the book.
The purpose here is to introduce the rectangle shape by folding a square in half.
The child also discovers by folding a circle in half, it no longer is a circle, and the
square folded diagonally in half produces a triangle.
Repeating the folding reinforces the basic shapes.
Where does it belong?
This activity is a good problem-solving skill because the child must observe the size of
the key, the type of the hole, the position of the teeth, and also which side, front or
back, of the key.
Which one will match?
Repeating this activity develops confidence and reduces the completion time.
Water play.
Water play is fun whether it is free exploration, pouring in different containers, awareness
of empty and full, heavy and light, or observing objects that sink and float.
Hit or miss.
The object of this activity is to gain skill in aiming at a target, eye-hand coordination,
skill and timing, and anticipating the return of the ball.
As you can see, this activity is developmental and is of high interest to young children
of various ages.
A child at age four can do more difficult activities than younger children.
With encouragement and praise, he will do even more.
At this age, the child is very curious.
Take time to listen to him because you may learn something.
Showing an interest in a child's thoughts, activities, and friends will help a parent,
teacher, or provider better understand the child so that he will grow with a positive
attitude towards himself and his environment.
The telephone.
A toy telephone is fun and develops role-playing and skill in memory recall and visual identification
of numbers, telephone courtesy, more awareness of left to right progression in recalling
a telephone number, as well as an awareness of emergency numbers such as 911.
Bouncing B. Even though letters of the alphabet have been introduced earlier, at age four
weekly letter activities are arranged in alphabetical order.
There are different activities for each letter and the consonant activities are interchangeable.
To reinforce, develop, and encourage interest, the letter names, sounds, a simple puppet,
and a chant are suggested for each letter.
For example, the chant for the letter B is, B B look and see.
The balloon is blue and was made by me.
Junk box.
Every home with small children may enjoy having a junk box.
This box should contain small items often found around the home that are commonly discarded.
By using these, children can enjoy free exploration, sensory enhancement, freedom of choice, and
skill in following directions.
Here the children have been instructed to find items that are red.
Kids have the boy follow directions while the girls stop to explore by smelling.
Sewing is fun.
At an earlier age in the box, threading yarn through the holes of a large button was introduced.
Here we see the girl skillfully sewing the running stitch around the outline of the fish.
Her mother serves as a helper to avoid frustration if the thread becomes tangled.
This activity develops skill in eye-hand coordination, more awareness of the outline of the fish,
and confidence.
A dozen.
Eight cartons can be used in many ways.
Here we see that the boy is confident in matching numbers 1 through 12 in the carton.
To better understand what each number means, we see this girl counting out the correct
number of buttons for each carton pocket.
As the numbers increase, her small hand can only hold a limited number of buttons as she
counts.
To avoid frustration, her mother interceded and instructed her to drop a button in the
pocket as she counted out the correct amount.
In doing this activity, the child develops an awareness of a dozen, skill in matching
numbers 1 through 12, more skill in left to right progression, skill in eye-hand coordination,
and confidence.
The clock.
Many children have only seen digital clocks.
To understand time, a child must first recognize the numbers 1 through 12, distinguish between
the big and the little hands on an analog clock, and observe the placement of the hands
at a given hour.
Patterns.
This activity is developmental from the up and down pattern with the cups.
Notice that the mother again instructed the child first, and then asked the child to create
a pattern.
This enabled the child to problem solve, using skills to further develop freedom of choice,
awareness of a pattern, skill in reading a pattern, and predicting what comes next.
It also develops visual and observational skills, and an appreciation of design and
pattern.
Look closely and see if the child made an error with the position of a pink toothpick,
and if the colors are correct.
Buttons, clothespins, colors, keys, letters, and numbers may be used for making patterns.
Rope jumping.
Jumping over a stationary rope at different levels should precede jumping over a rope,
moving back and forth.
Jumping through a hoop develops more skill in jumping at a precise moment.
As you can see, this little girl has developed more confidence and has begun to develop better
gross motor coordination.
As her skill improves, she can begin counting the number of her jumps without missing.
As you have seen, the best thing that you can spend on your child is your time.
As you have just seen, slow and steady getting me ready is for those who are genuinely interested
in helping children get a good start in life.
Hello, I'm Clyde Oberlander, president of BioAlpha, Inc., publisher of the 324-page
preschool resource book, Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready.
This unique how-to handbook is unique because recommended activities begin at birth, each
money-saving activity uses inexpensive recycled household materials, there is a new age-appropriate
activity for each week of a child's life from birth to age 5, and it clearly tells
when, how, and what skills are developed during each weekly activity.
Both Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready and this video may be ordered directly from the publisher,
BioAlpha, Inc., Post Office Box 7190, Fairfax Station, Virginia, 22039, or Telephone 703,
323-6142.
Price information for both the book and this film accompanies this video.
Quantity rates for multiple orders are available.
We hope that this video will encourage and motivate parents and caregivers to strengthen
the parent-child bond and that it will be useful for seminars and workshops concerning
preschool education.
Remember, the best thing that you can spend on your child is your time.